Ukraine and Russia are "in talks". What does the prisoner exchange look like behind the scenes?

Ukraine is negotiating with Russia on humanitarian issues. In order to return Ukrainian soldiers, Ukraine must agree to the conditions proposed by the Russians. The Vatican and other countries often mediate between the two sides. "The Washington Post" described the behind-the-scenes of the prisoner of war exchange process.

Ukraine currently rejects peace talks with the Russian Federation. President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a recent interview that "now is not the time to talk to Putin". At the beginning of the full-scale invasion, a short round of talks took place but failed. The Washington Post writes that these talks were “literally poisoned” when several members of the Ukrainian delegation mysteriously fell ill.

Ukrainian-Russian negotiations. Turkey in the lead

Türkiye has become the main place of Ukrainian-Russian talks. Several delegation meetings were announced publicly, but the newspaper said such information is often not fully disclosed, so there could have been many more.

Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov was among the officials who held talks in Istanbul. As an ethnic Crimean Tatar who is fluent in Turkish, he was able to establish contacts in Turkey. In particular, according to the newspaper, it helped in negotiations for the release of Crimean Tatar prisoners after Russia's invasion of the peninsula in 2014.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has successfully developed ties with Moscow and Kyiv - he has condemned Russia's invasion but rejected Western sanctions and acts as a conduit for the Russian financial sector

- notes "The Washington Post".

Negotiations on the issue of Ukrainian grain

This was followed by negotiations for a grain agreement. Ukraine's deputy infrastructure minister, Yuri Vaskov, who took part in the negotiations, told the newspaper that there were no one-on-one meetings between Ukrainians and Russians at the time. Instead, negotiations took place in a four-party format: Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and the UN. It was then that the largest prisoner exchange was agreed: 215 Ukrainians and 10 foreign fighters were exchanged for 55 Russian officers and Ukrainian politician Viktor Medvedchuk, Putin's ally and crony.

One of the mediators is the Vatican

Through the Catholic Church, Ukraine is lobbying for the return of cooks, doctors, and others who did not take part in the fighting but were taken prisoner in Russia. Under the Geneva Conventions, non-combatants cannot be imprisoned as prisoners of war. Ukraine is sending lists of names to the papal nuncio in Kyiv, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, who sends them to the Russian Orthodox Church in Moscow through the Holy See, an anonymous Ukrainian official said. Then the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, sends a message to the Kremlin.